(This application includes matter protected by copyright. All rights are reserved.)
1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to managing a large distributed computer enterprise environment and, in particular, to graphic display methods for use in scheduling locale-sensitive information such as local holidays.
2. Description of the Related Art
Large organizations now desire to place all of their computing resources on a computer network. To this end, it is known to connect computers in a large, geographically-dispersed network environment and to manage such an environment in a distributed manner. One such management framework consists of a server that manages a number of nodes, each of which has a local object database that stores object data specific to the local node. Each managed node typically includes a management framework, comprising a number of management routines, that is capable of a relatively large number (e.g., hundreds) of simultaneous network connections to remote machines. The framework manages hundreds of megabytes of local storage and can spawn many dozens of simultaneous processes to handle method requests from local or remote users.
Managed nodes are often located across national boundaries. Thus, a typical managed network of the type described above may include offices located in numerous countries. Multinational companies that operate such networks must deal with scheduling administrative events in these different locales. These locales, however, often have different holidays that impact such scheduling. As an example, assume the enterprise desires to upgrade each endpoint computer in a managed region with a new version of a large computer program. Obviously, it would not be desirable to distribute this new load during the day when computer users are otherwise occupied and working. A better solution would be to distribute the new program files on a day in which the system usage is relatively low, e.g., a holiday, such as U.S. Independence Day, July 4th. Independence Day, of course, is not a holiday outside the United States. Thus, while distribution on July 4th would make sense for those endpoint computers operating within the United States, such distribution would be undesirable in the Company's other offices (e.g., the United Kingdom, Egypt, Italy and the like).
Thus, to the extent a large managed region crosses country boundaries, it is necessary to deal with the problem of scheduling management tasks while taking into consideration local holidays or other events that may impact such scheduling.
The present invention addresses this problem.